Litvinenko, now a British citizen, co-authored a book in 2002 entitled Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, in which he alleged Federal Security Service (FSB) agents coordinated apartment block bombings [The excuse for the Russian invasion of Chechenya - ed.] in Russia that killed more than 300 people in 1999. Officials blamed the bombings on Chechen rebels.

Litvinenko in very serious condition, remains in intensive care
11/23/2006
The hospital treating him said "he is heavily sedated and on a ventilator because overnight he went into a heart failure." The BBC reported three unexplained "objects of dense matter" had been found in his stomach...................
Litvinenko, now a British citizen, co-authored a book in 2002 entitled Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, in which he alleged Federal Security Service (FSB) agents coordinated apartment block bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people in 1999. Officials blamed the bombings on Chechen rebels.

I must confess that I began to have my doubts about which 'dark forces' may have been responsible for the death of former FSB spook, Alexander Litvinenko.

On the one side you have the offical FSB, so-called 'rogue elements' within it and gangsters associated with those oligarchs still loyal to the Putin regime. And on the other you have the ex pat anti Putin oligarchs and their CIA, MI5/6 and other foreign secret service sponsors.

So it's worthwhile going over the events (as they have been reported) in this real life John Le Carre intrigue...

The media broke the story on Saturday 18th November that Alexander Litvinenko, ex FSB agent, had been admitted to University College Hospital as a victim of poisoning.

It was reported that he was first admitted to Barnet Hospital on Nov 2nd (subsequently revised) the day after meeting Mario Scaramella in a Japanese restaurant. Litvinenko reported Scaramella as being very nervous, handing him documents that could just as easily have been emailed.

Litvinenko was transferred to Univeristy College Hospital the day after toxicology tests at Guys indicated Thallium poisoning (Thursday 16th Nov).

By the 19th November reports were circulating of another meeting that Litvinenko had had with a former KGB agent called Lugovoy and an un-named former associate of Boris Beresovski immediately prior to his lunch with Scaramella.

Professor Tony Henry, toxicologist, gave Litvinenko a 50/50 chance of survival saying that the next MONTH would be critical. There was also speculation that other poisons may have been administered because of damage to his bone marrow.

On Monday 20th November it was reported that Litvinenko had been moved the previous day into a critical care unit at UCL under armed guard. Marina Litvinenko complained about medics and police who had refused to take seriously her and her husband's claim that he had been poisoned.

On Tuesday 21st November recent TV footage of Mario Scaramella (supposedly in hiding fearing for his life) in Italy are shown around the world. The 'Professor' is supposedly an expert on KGB terror. Some reports suggest that he has links both to the Italian security services and organized crime.

Also on this day a new theory about the poisoning material appears. At first Thallium (Sulphate) was the suspected agent - this became Radioactive Thallium. Later this changes to 'unknown substances.'

Alexander Litvinenko is reported as dying on Thurday 23rd November @ 21.23.

Points to ponder -

1) Litvinenko's blood serum test on the 16th November proved positive for thallium. Why was this result contradicted by two differing medical opinions 5 days later?

2) Professor Tony Henry suggested on Saturday 18th that Litvinenko had a month's life expectancy and thereafter a 50/50 chance of survival yet Litvinenko was dead within a week.

3) Litvinenko voiced clear suspicions about Mario Scaramella yet the media en masse spread suspicion about Lugovoy and an unknown accomplice. Scaramella supposedly in 'fear for his life' is filmed and videoed openly meeting and greeting in Italy.

And finally a little information about thallium...

It used to be the 'poisoner's poison' as it is odourless, colourless and highly toxic. That was until the 1960's when a modified version of a blue pigment used in paint was first used clinically as an antidote. Its called Prussian Blue or PB.

Since 2003 an FDA approved prescription drug called Radiogardase (based on PB) has become the antidote of choice to thallium AND radioactive thallium (possibly explains why the spooks, sorry media, revised their radioactive theory to 'unknown substances').

Honest, this is the last bit...

I was within FOUR hours of possibly being able to prove which 'dark force' was behind the hit. I checked out 'thallium' on Wikipedia at approximately 1.15am this morning. Surprisingly, the entry included a reference to Litvinenko's death.

I'm as intrigued as anybody about this but I think that sometimes suspiscious activity can be seen where there is none.

Pincher wrote:

Professor Tony Henry, toxicologist, gave Litvinenko a 50/50 chance of survival saying that the next MONTH would be critical.

Pincher wrote:

Professor Tony Henry suggested on Saturday 18th that Litvinenko had a month's life expectancy and thereafter a 50/50 chance of survival yet Litvinenko was dead within a week.

These two statements have two completely different meanings. The first, I presume, is an indirect quote from Professor Tony Henry and the second your inference of his quote - which is quite inaccurate.

The business with wikipedia is not surprising either. It's like a geeks Beaujolais race to see who can update the entries with the latest news. When I first read your post it gave the impression that somebody had updated the entry before Litvinenko had died.

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the three two pence piece sized shadows - initially described as objects - later attributed to the antidote Prussian Blue and then dropped altogether.

I'm as intrigued as anybody about this but I think that sometimes suspiscious activity can be seen where there is none.

Pincher wrote:

Professor Tony Henry, toxicologist, gave Litvinenko a 50/50 chance of survival saying that the next MONTH would be critical.

Pincher wrote:

Professor Tony Henry suggested on Saturday 18th that Litvinenko had a month's life expectancy and thereafter a 50/50 chance of survival yet Litvinenko was dead within a week.

These two statements have two completely different meanings. The first, I presume, is an indirect quote from Professor Tony Henry and the second your inference of his quote - which is quite inaccurate.

The business with wikipedia is not surprising either. It's like a geeks Beaujolais race to see who can update the entries with the latest news. When I first read your post it gave the impression that somebody had updated the entry before Litvinenko had died.

I'm surprised that you didn't mention the three two pence piece sized shadows - initially described as objects - later attributed to the antidote Prussian Blue and then dropped altogether.

Of the two statements of mine that you have dug up Flamesong, the second is semantically closer to TH's original remark - he clearly expected Litvinenko to hold out for another month. More about TH in a mo...

I take your point about the Wikipedia 'geeks beaujolais race (I like the metaphor - not for sale by any chance?) ' and your impression was correct. Remember that US intelligence services are active on Wiki and judging by spelling and idiom the thallium entry is probably of American provenance.

Back to TH... he was reported in the Sunday Times of the 19/11 as suspecting that another agent had been used to poison Litvinenko. That suggests to me that Guy's had already confirmed the presence of Polonium in Litvinenko's urine. This begs the question - was the thallium explanation just a smokescreen (and a pretty feeble one at that)?

But there are antidotes too for Polonium. The established chelators would be effective enough to keep Litvinenko alive in the short term if he was treated promptly. But there seem to have been inexplicable delays in his treatment. And an inexplicable move to a public ward in a public hospital in central London (as opposed to an islotation unit in a Porton Down type establishment) to which Murdoch & co had easy access.

Everything about this intrigue has 'news management' stamped all over it. It took nearly three weeks for the story to break and each snippet of information has been supplied on cue. And now we have a feeding frenzy over a relatively insignificant dissident ex spook (do the police cordons around the deceased's home remind you of anything?) and the old blurred battle lines of the cold war are coming back sharply into focus.

I salute a Russian hero fallen in the GWOT. The 9/11 Truth activists must not be blinded to the fact that false flag terrorism is NOT an Anglosaxon monopoly. This point was NOT accepted by one 9/11 truth activist in London and reflects poor research and judgement to say the least and arrogance- a bit more humbleness in approach is required.
Indeed the Moscow bombings in 1999 predate 9/11 in the USA and the correlationship needs further investigation. As events in Moscow in 1999 led to a new invasion in Chechnya(Caucasas) whilst events in
New York/Washington led to an invasion of Afghanistan. Both regions at centre stage of the geopolitical and resource wars.

As I watched, both yesterday and this morning, the news following Litvinenko’s death, I have been struck by the 'oddities' which seem to emanate from the various news reports. For instance, doctors were stating just before he died that they were having troubles identifying any poisons used and why he had been so ill for the three weeks or so.

The morning after his death there are police splashed all over our TV screens taking away boxes of 'radioactive' materials from the hospital, sushi bar, his home etc etc. Funny how doctors had such a struggle identifying the 'poison', yet within hours of his death, suddenly "it was Polonium", and now the police have rushed in to 'protect' everyone. All very odd!!!

Even stranger in all this is the fact that, a couple of weeks ago and buried deep within the bowels of certain news sites (Sky news being one), Al-Qaeda have been looking for nuclear materials.

What I find quite risible is the way that COBRA have asked the Kremlin for their assistance! In a police investigation, 'helping with enquiries' is a euphemism for 'chief suspect'. When Litvinenko points his finger at the Kremlin in his death bed statement, Putin denies any involvement and the Kremlin is asked for help, can we expect a GWB, 'let us not tolerate outrageous conspiracie theories' type response from the investigators?

As if the murky world of espionage had not already obscured the
story of the death of Alexander Litvinenko enough, it now seems that
powerful PR forces have been at work too.

The Guardian reported today that a company run by Lord Bell of
Belgravia, who as Tim Bell was behind the advertising campaigns which
helped the Tories to power in 1972, distributed the pictures of Mr
Litvinenko in hospital and handled media enquiries.

Lord Bell's Bell Pottinger Communications clients include Boris
Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch, who was a friend and employer of Mr
Litvinenko.

The Evening Standard's This is London website added that Moscow has
also employed a powerful PR consultancy, to counter claims from
Berzovsky. It reports: "The Russian government has signed a
multi-million pound contract with the American PR firm, Ketchum. They
are using two heavyweights in London: Tim Allen, a former Downing
Street spin doctor, and Angus Roxburgh, a former BBC correspondent in
Moscow."_________________The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.

Cui bono? Not Putin ,not the Russians. Modern political assassinations by intelligence agencies are made to look like accidents or suicides, not like FSB murders, unless by agencies looking to discredit the Russians

Putin had an oil oligarch arrested some time ago and STOLE all his oil fields by nationalizing them without compensation. There are certain forces in Britain who were outaged by this because this oil oligarch was their man in Russia......

This could be payback time to discredit Putin internationally because these same forces want to destabilize Russia by 'encouraging' terrorist outrages that will force Putin to resign because he is made to look both weak and a murderer so that they can get a puppet who is not nationalistic and whom they can control in order to get their hands on Russia's oil resources._________________http://www.exopolitics-leeds.co.uk/introduction

What about the possibility of Mossad involvement? To get the British government (and public opinion) to distance itself from Russia in the run-up to a US/Israel British-supported attack on Iran - an attack Russia is likely to oppose?

But in the end, god knows who did it. Somebody connected to the murky world of intelligence, that's for sure.

Yes, there are some very odd things indeed about the 'investigation' (if not the reporting) of the death of Alexander Litvinenko. I have tried to piece everything together and if we can rely upon the currently agreed accounts of Litvinenko's movements prior to being admitted to Barnet General I would say that the prime suspect is 'Professore' (Ha! Ha!) Mario Scaramella and that the assassination was a CIA, MI6 & SISDE (Italian secret service) 'false flag' operation.

The Murdoch press are particularly obsessed with the assassination and got the polonium scoop (which they had been sitting on for several days if Prof. Tony Henry's remarks are anything to go by - now mysteriously 'retired' from the case after his announcement of the thallium positive at Guys Hospital on the 16th November). Friday's Sun not only identified the substance but said that it had been sprayed on Litvinenko's sushi at Itsu's. Velly intellesting...

This revelation would appear to rule out fellow ex FSB agent Lugovoy and friends who met Litvinenko in the Pine Bar at The Millenium Hotel shortly after he met Scaramella at Itsu's. And this is where the Murdoch press's reportage becomes rather confusing.

So far no one, and certainly not Litvinenko himself, has mentioned the presence of anyone else at his meeting with Scaramella. And whilst the Murdoch press allude to the possibility that Scaramella has Mafia and KGB connections they go out of their way to exhonerate rather than incriminate him (by constantly referring to the well worn cliche that he too was on the KGB hit list).

Instead The Sunday Times fingers a certain Viktor Kirov, an SVR agent, (whom Litvinenko stated had been 'assigned' to his case) and The News of the World singles out for attention a Spetsnaz vet whose middle name is 'Igor' (I know, it gets more like John Le Carre by the day). However, neither organ suggests that either of them were diners or were posing as sushi chefs at Itsu's on the fateful day. But neither paper resiles from the Sun's claim that that was where Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium 210. Something's got to give...

Step forward the Evening Standard. Instead of spreading rumours, their hacks went after Scaramella in Italy and there they found a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. None of the universities listed on his resume (amongst them Bogota, Greenwich & Stanford) had any record of him. The Environmental Crime Prevention Programme agency he represents is unknown to similar organisations such as Greenpeace, has a defunct website and a Californian academic as a general secretary who is curiously incommunicado.

Scaramella has links to Berlusconi and 'Forza Italia' and serves on the Italian Mitrokhin Commission. He claims credit for saving the life of the chairman (Senator Paolo Guzzanti) of the latter (acting on a tip off from Litvinenko) and of foiling a Ukranian/Mafia uranium smuggling operation.

The real clue to Scaramella's actual status though is that amongst his supposed employers who either refused or could not properly vouch for him was his current one - The Univeristy of Naples. The following remarks by one of his 'colleagues' is intriguing:

And Dr Maria Scaramella, a namesake at the university, said: "I used to get all this post for him but I could never actually find him. He was supposed to have an office on the third floor but I was never able to find it. He was supposed to have some sort of European funding for research but I never knew exactly what."

Any amateur spookwatcher knows that the only organisation that can provide that kind of high profile cover is a domestic intelligence agency. Scaramella is clearly working for SISDE. It is worth noting that after MI5/6 SISDE is the European inteligence agency closest to the CIA.

Assuming that all of this business is not a colossal fabrication (and that there never was an ex FSB agent called Litvinenko!) everything we know/don't know about Scaramella suggests that he is a specialist black ops spook (too much of a mean looking baastard for an academic that's for sure!).

As soon as these and other inconsistencies start to be picked over in the media expect this story to quietly fade away...

What I find most mysterious is why should such a bizarre hi-tech means used at all?
Even if the hit was meant to become public knowledge as a 'message', it still seems one of the most drawn out and long-winded assassinations since Georgi Markov's.

Additionally the "previously unaware" and indeed the entire world now know of Litvinenko's book "Blowing Up Russia" containing his allegations that the Russian FSB, rather than Chechen terrorists went around Moscow in 1999 planting bombs in apartment blocks and murdering their own innocent citizens and were inside the Moscow theatre during the siege by alleged Checen terrorists in 2002.

What I find most mysterious is why should such a bizarre hi-tech means used at all?
Even if the hit was meant to become public knowledge as a 'message', it still seems one of the most drawn out and long-winded assassinations since Georgi Markov's.

Georgi Markov died within four days of being pricked with ricin (no known antidote at the time) and we didn't hear about it until much later.

Polonium 210 is not a state-of-the-art toxin. The USP of this radioactive substance is that it can be manufactured to a spec that enables both safe handling and deadly delivery. Contrary to what the f*ckwit hacks are saying though:

1) This modified form can be produced in private facilities.
2) There are chelating substances that can treat effectively polonium poisoning.
3) Polonium's short biological half life (polonium c. 138 days, plutonium 20 -50 years) should stack the odds in the victim's favour provided there is prompt and competent medical intervention.

Here are some further oddities about the case:

1) Some reports say that Litvinenko was admitted to Barnet General the day after the 'official' date of the attack (Nov 1) - others that he waited for up to three days (when his symptoms would have been very severe).

2) He was admitted under an assumed name. Given his vulnerability why did he do this?

3) His claims that he had been poisoned were initially dismissed by medical staff. Again, given his status, why the official scepticism?

4) Intelligence services take a keen interest in the welfare of defectors 'from the other side.' MI5/6 seem to have been very relaxed about protecting their asset.

5) After the positive thallium test at Guys, Litvinenko was moved - but to another open ward at another general hospital (University College) in central London.

6) Why was there no offical explanation given for the false positive for thallium when tests showed that polonium 210 was the agent used?

7) Why was Professor Tony Henry (the toxicologist who first confirmed the positive thallium test and who first mused about the possibility of 'other agents') 'retired' from the case?

For my own part I believe it's possible Litvinenko wasn't poisoned on November 1st but later and that Scaramella/Itsu could prove to be a red herring.

Litvinenko may have feared an attack fron either side which might explain why he gave an assumed name at Barnet General. He might have been aware of his growing expendability. Initially, 5&6 allowed medics to bungle his case and when Litvinenko was half dead and the doctors had wised up they silently took over.

The thallium positive allowed the spooks to move Litvinenko to a public hospital so that he could expire relatively quickly in the full glare of publicity (a positive for a radioactive substance would of course have precluded this propaganda coup and the Russophobic backlash).

Cui bono? Not Putin ,not the Russians. Modern political assassinations by intelligence agencies are made to look like accidents or suicides, not like FSB murders, unless by agencies looking to discredit the Russians

Putin had an oil oligarch arrested some time ago and STOLE all his oil fields by nationalizing them without compensation. There are certain forces in Britain who were outaged by this because this oil oligarch was their man in Russia......

This could be payback time to discredit Putin internationally because these same forces want to destabilize Russia by 'encouraging' terrorist outrages that will force Putin to resign because he is made to look both weak and a murderer so that they can get a puppet who is not nationalistic and whom they can control in order to get their hands on Russia's oil resources.

Putin was Berezosky's bitch until he got uppity and stopped following orders, since when they have been supposed mortal enemies. Britain very helpfully has allowed Berezovsky to reside in leafy Surrey along with his ill-gotten gains and allows him to wage his not inconsiderable efforts to destabalise Russia by proxy from the safety of the UK much to the public displeasure of Putin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Berezovsky

The current Ukraine president came to power as a result of a very media savvy, 'popular uprising' and presidential revote. the revote was in part swayed by sympathy for Yushchenko who had experienced a mysterious illness allegedly from dioxin poisoning

Murdoch Media are still running with the Litvinenko poisoning and certain things seem to be crystallising.

1) Yesterday's Times let slip that Litvinenko tested positive for polonium 210 whilst at Barnet General. The 'cover story' bought by the media was that he had only tested positive three hours before his death on Thursday 23rd November - at least one week later.

2) Professore Mario Scaramella has returned to the UK to talk to Scotland Yard about his meeting with Litvinenko. The Yard say that he is not under arrest and is being interviewed only as a witness. But he is being held in a secure location. Exactly who or what is he afraid of?

3) The Times also recently gave a different itinerary for Litvinenko on the possible day of the attack. Up until Monday, the media had been reporting that he had visited The Millennium Hotel BEFORE he went to Itsu. The Times indicated it had been the other way round and that he had arrived at the hotel at about 4.00pm. If this account is accurate then this would appear to rule out the 'mysterious' Russian suspects in the hotel bar.

4) Today's Sun reports that Litvinenko whilst on his death bed confided to his publishing collaborator, Pal Yuri Felshtinsk, his suspicions about Scaramella because of his nervous behaviour at the restauarant. Felshtinski is quoted as saying that Scaramella is an FSB agent. I wonder if he really believes that?

Although this black op has achieved some of its objectives one gets the feeling Scaramella has bungled it. Needless to say if his headless corpse is fished out of the Thames in the next few months his death would be blamed on Putin or FSB/SVR renegades by the Western media.

But why would Moscow allow one of its agents to return to the scene of the crime and both incriminate himself and implicate them?

Further to my post above, I note now that the "Authorities" seem to be finding traces of radioactivity everywhere - latest seems to be on three BA planes. None of this makes any sense, unless you start to view it as being a further cog in the great deception to scare the hell out of all of us, so we will give up further our rights and freedoms in order that the "State" can leap in to protect us.

I see the link to terrorism, which I predicted above, drawing ever closer. It is highly possible, in my own opinion, that because sheeple are becoming more disbelieving of the conventional "terrorist scare" tactics, our Intelligence services and politicians have moved the scenario along a little.

Beggars belief that we live in a so called free democratic western society, doesn't it??

Britain has a history of cold-war paranoia of Russians 'under every bed' and Russia being on the verge of invading Britain it is ironic that once the invasion occurred with millions of people from E Europe, not much was actually ...said.

Instead in order to justify the fake 'war on terror' we had scare stories against every muslim, in particular after the dubious 7/7 bombings. Having created social and cultural polarisation with hundreds of thousands of muslims, they now seem to be turning their attention to the old and trusted enemy, Russia.

If somene can keep up with the all the variations and changes of the story which seems to get more ludicrous as days go by (Xmas is coming a new plane scare must occur!) this whole show is turning into a farce...

A friend of mine from Canada sent me this surprising news from Chechnya (see highlighted section):

Chechen rebels "grieved" by Litvinenko death

Excerpt from report by Chechenpress news agency website

25 November: In the name of God, the Merciful and the Compassionate!

We were grieved and indignant to hear about the death of the known writer, rights activist and persistent advocate of truth and justice, Aleksandr Litvinenko. In their regular manner of cowards and professional killers, Kremlin criminals stabbed him in the back and treacherously poisoned him. This by no means is the first crime of such kind committed by the Russian president's helpers against political opponents of the Kremlin-Lubyanka [FSB headquarters] pakhanate [pun on "khanate" and "pakhan," Russian for thug leader].

MPs Sergey Yushenkov and Yuriy Shchekochikhin, former CRI [Chechen Republic of Ichkeria] president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and journalist Anna Politkovskaya - all of them fell victim to Kremlin killers. Aleksandr Litvinenko - an honest and courageous man who uncompromisingly unmasked all crimes and provocations committed by the Kremlin fascist regime - has now added to the list.

We regard as particularly important the convincing proof and evidence of the direct involvement of the Russian special services in the explosions in residential buildings in Russian towns in the autumn of 1999 collected by Aleksandr Litvinenko in his book "The FSB blows up Russia". Thanks to this book and other publications by Aleksandr Litvinenko, Putin and his accomplices will never wash out of their dirty hand the blood of hundreds of civilians in Russia that was shed in order to find a cause to unleash new war and new genocide in Chechnya. In the book, Aleksandr Litvinenko presented a precise report on the crime committed by Putin's killers who cold-bloodedly annihilated hundreds of citizens of Russia to find a cause to exterminate hundreds of thousands of citizens of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

Putin's killers killed Aleksandr Litvinenko but they are powerless to kill his cause, his name and the cherished memory of him in the hearts of all honest people. Aleksandr Litvinenko is one of those that his nation can be proud of, and we will remember him and will be proud that he was a faithful and selfless friend of the Chechen people in the hardest and most tragic period of our history. We would like to make it known that the president and government of the CRI are currently dealing with events commemorating Aleksandr Litvinenko and awarding him the most honourable state award of the CRI for his services to the Chechen people. His name will be immortalized in the pantheon of the most glorious heroes of our motherland.

We have learnt that shortly before the attempt on his life, Aleksandr Litvinenko voluntarily and sincerely converted to Islam. Thus, he not only became our comrade-in-arms but also brother-in-faith. We pray to God Almighty to regard Aleksandr Litvinenko's struggle for triumph of justice as a holy Jihad on his righteous path. We pray to our Creator to assign our brother and comrade-in-arms with the degree of Shahid [martyr] (God willing) and make him a guest of Paradise. We also extend our sincere condolences and commiseration over their grief to the family, all relatives and friends of Aleksandr Litvinenko.

So it seems that Mario Scaramellas mere protestations of innocence should be taken at face value by police and media alike. Now this self styled target of the FSB/SVR is claiming that he has tested positive for polonium 210 barely two days after claiming precisely the opposite. And all, no doubt, from the safety of the secure location outside London (MI6 IONEC Centre near Portsmouth?).

Of course, Litvinenko proved positive for thallium before he proved positive for polonium 210. The antidote Radiogardase and chelator DMSA it seems were virtually unknown by British toxicologists. The high grade polonium which could only come from a state facility turns out to be available on the internet for $69 a pop from a commercial plant in the US.

Meetings with three mysterious Russians to discuss unspecified things before lunch at Itsu's with you-know-who turn out to be happy hour slugs of gin to discuss business at Litvinenko's request with former colleagues AFTER the sushi encounter with Scaramella.

And then we have Scaramella's past...and his present... and none of it can be vouched for including his third floor office at the University of Naples funded by a European research project that doesn't exist. Yet the media ploughs on determined to exhonerate him. And if in the unlikely event he is a suspect he must surely be working for the FSB or the Russian mafia or even Boris Berezovski...

Puts me in mind of the rookie cop who bangs on a motel room door. When it's opened by a wild eyed loon with an axe in one hand and a severed head in the other he asks: 'Excuse me sir one of the other guests reported a disturbance. You haven't heard or seen anything suspicious have you?'

From a socialist perspective there are plenty of grounds for criticising Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He's introduced a flat-rate income tax which greatly benefits the wealthy, and plans the partial marketisation of Russia's education and health systems, and while some of Russia's notorious oligarchs who made their fortune from robbing the Russian public in the 1990's under Yeltsin have been brought to justice, others remain free to flaunt their ill-gotten gains in a country where the gap between rich and poor is chasmic.

Even so, those on the left who have been joining in the wave of Putin bashing ought to consider whose cause they are serving. Its beyond a doubt that the driving force behind the campaign to portray Putin as a sinister despot have been the Washington neo-cons.

Even before the recent unexplained deaths of journalist Anna Politskaya and former secret service man Alexander Litvenenko, hawks in the US were doing all that they could to discredit the Russian government.

In 2003, Project for a new American century director Bruce P Jackson, a key figure in several other neo-con pressure groups, talked of the way in which Putin's renationalisation of energy companies threatened the West's "democratic objectives" and claimed that Putin had established a de facto "cold war administration".

Jacksons prognosis was simple - a new "soft war" against the Kremlin, a call echoed by many other leading neocons.

The neocons are gunning for Putin not because of concern over anti-democratic practises, but because the current Russian regime stands in the way of their plans for global hegemony.

Their imperialist strategy was recorded in the infamous "Wolfowitz memorandum," a secret Pentagon document leaked to the New York times in 1992, which targeted Russia as the biggest future threat to US geostrategic ambitions.

The memo, authored by the then undersecretary for defence, Paul Wolfowitz, considered by many to be the architect of the Iraq war, projected a US/Russian confrontation over NATO expansion.

For neocons, Putins great crime is that he has proved to be a far more assertive leader than his alcoholic predecessor. Putin not only held his ground on Iraq, openly making fun of US and UK claims that Iraq possessed WDM, but also opposes Washington's aspirations for enforced regime change in Syria and Iran. He has also supported Venezuelas bid for a place on the UN security council.

As part of their anti-Putin strategy, the neocons have shown that they are prepared to make some interesting alliances. The pro-separatist American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC) claims to be the "only private non-gov. org in America exclusively dedicated to promoting the peaceful resolution of the Russo-Chechen war."

But its list of members makes interesting reading. Hardcore neocons Richard Perle, William Kristol, Eliot Cohen, Michael Ledeen, Bruce Jackson, who are not usually associated with promoting the peaceful resolution of international conflicts, are all members.

Although ACPC notes its concern about human rights violations by Russia, "the committee appears to be more concerned with advancing US geopolitics in this region with respect to Russia and , secondarily with China" concludes the progressive and well respected international Relations Centre.

The neocons have also been willing to champion the cause of some of Russia's most notorious oligarchs in furtherance of their anti-Putin campaign.

After the arrest of the billionaire Mikhail Khodorovsky for tax evasion in 2003, Perle called for Russia's expulsion from the G8, its exclusion from any post-war Iraq oil contracts and accused it of collusion with Iran's nuclear power programme.

The arrest of Kodorovsky has brought condemnation from no less a person than the US president himself. One can only imagine the hiatus if Putin had commented on the arrest of a domestic tax dodger by US authorities.

In the unrelenting pro-Korodovsky anti-Putin propaganda back in 2003, much was made of the oligarchs role in building Russian democracy as opposed to crude attempts of Putin to shunt his country back to the days of Peter the Great.

But the "democracy" that oligarchs like Korodovsky and his British based counterpart Boris Berezhovsky, a business partner of George W. Bush's brother, stands for is the "democracy" of an elite of billionaire businessmen to buy themselves not just political power but immunity from the laws of the land.

Its this plutocratic model of "democracy" not the democracy in which decision making power rests with ordinary people, that Washington's neocons favour.

The recent deaths of Politskaya and Litvenenko have only provided further impetus to their long standing well financed campaign to smear the Kremlin.

Below is a list of Russian Bilderbergers from 1991 - 2006. In all I count six individuals, one of whom, Lilia Shevtsova, has attended FOUR times. She is associated with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow.

(lists consulted are at Tony Gosling's Bilderberg website)

2005 Nemirovskaya, Elena; Founder and Director, Moscow School of Political Studies

You will see that Bilderberg was not that interested in Russia in the 1990's, probably because Yeltsin was their pisshead-in-chief and was quite happy selling off Russian state assets at bargain prices for a shot of Vodka, and it would seem that Putin was also being groomed by Berezovsky.

But then Putin came to power in 2000, changed the plan, and is now taking back what was stolen.

The two organisations represented at Bilderberg are the Carnegies and the Moscow School of Political Studies.

The reason for Carnegie is self-evident in the name.

On the board of MSPS in 2005 was Mikhail Khodorkovsky before he was sent down. Sponsors of MSPS include Open Russia Foundation, which opened in 2001 in London, of all places. I wonder why London?

But who is on the board of ORF?

Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Dr Henry Kissinger
Lord Jacob Rothschild

According to the Yukos website, "The motivation for the establishment of the Open Russia Foundation was to foster openness, understanding, and integration between the people of Russia and the rest of the world."

Yeah, right!

Other sponsors of MSPS are George Soros' Open Society *, and Morgan Stanley.

Another board member is Lord Robert Skidelsky at Warwick Uni, who was at Bilderberg 2005.

Today we read that Shell is being forced to sell its stake in Sakhalin-2, and there are fears at BP that it could be forced out of its Russian projects too.

And we know who controls both Shell and BP from behind the scenes, don't we?

Was Litvinenko done in to pressure Putin to stop this, and now that he isn't then the pullout is now being made to look like Russia is a thug in taking back its own natural resources?

As is reported by 2005 Bilderberg attendees to Daniel Estulin,
"A European banker pointed out that Russia could effectively devalue the dollar by re-denominating its energy trade with Europe from dollars into euros, forcing Europe's central banks to rebalance their foreign exchange reserves in favour of the euro. Jean-Claude Trichet, governor of the European Central Bank was present during the debate."

"The discussion began with a European expert on international relations pointing out that over the next several years Russia is poised to assert itself and to increasingly challenge the Bush administration's foreign policy goals. Someone openly asked the committee if the world is safer today than in 2001 and will it be safer in four years time? A Dutchman responded by saying there is little doubt that the hand of international terrorism has been substantially strengthened by the US and its heavy-handed policy in the Middle East. "

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One thing that does concern me though is that I think a strong Russia is required for Pike's WW3. According to Pike's plan Communism was supposed to be held in check until "the final cataclysm". I currently see Putin rebelling against the Rothschilds, the British Monarchy and their cronies. But I also see that it could also be part of the plan in strengthening Russia._________________The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan.

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